at the intersection of business, parenthood, and music

I wrote a post on October 19, 2009 when my car reached 100,000 miles. I don’t know why I wrote that post, but it was a milestone for me since I’d never owned a car with that many miles on it. Oddly, I remember a few minutes of the morning of the day I went into work after writing that post as well as what I was wearing along with a conversation I was having with the office manager at the time. Here are a few quotes from that post updated for now:

“And now here it is 8 [11.5] years, 2 kids, 3 [5] jobs, several written articles, 381 [600] blog posts [1,977 comments], and one mid-life crisis later and the car has been solid (knock on wood).” I did just have to spend about $1,500 to fix a timing belt tensionar pulley issue and a side engine mount thingamabob a week ago…the timing (pun — or whatever — intended) wasn’t great from a cash flow perspective, but hey it’s still running!

“I was too busy chatting with my [best] friend [driving to/from SXSW] at the time to notice when it hit the 100,000 [150,000] mile mark.”

“I wonder for how many more miles I will own this car…”

Not that 99.5% of most people really care about my car or it’s mileage, but let’s just say these last 50K miles on my car have felt like a 100K miles in my life. The amount of change that has happened in my life personally (myself and my kids) and professionally has been astounding. And sometimes I’m surprised I’m still standing, but since the kids and I have regular check ups with friends & doctors and an active social life that keeps us driving around, I guess the life maintenance plan is working okay so far… I think I need to get an oil change. How does one get a personal oil change?

Having driven cars that were mostly closer to or above 100k, ferrying a kid across town as a single mom and been through a rough but joyous ride I know what you mean. The car is your silent companion on whose shoulders many a secret tear is shed, many a kiss, love and laughter exchanged. So mileage is character and I’d pick mileage over model any day . Be it a car or a companion.

Hi Nalini, thanks for the clip and the link. I’m not surprised that your naughty brain can’t come up with an innocent answer. Yes, my car has been one of the most reliable things in my life and I hope it will keep on going for a long time more…

Doesn’t progress have the niftiest way of putting a smile on your face? I never would have thought to use car mileage for tracking life milestones. How cute and random! lol

I’m going straight over to read more about your experience at SXSW. I’m so jealous. That’s one of my bucket list items. By 25, I hope to have attended at least once. (I’m 23 now). There’s so much I know I could take away about building myself as a brand and promoting my business.

You have an interesting blog. I enjoy the personal touch you add to each post. That’s missing in most entrepreneurship blogs… if you don’t mind being categorized as such.